The Quest - 2

Lula-Hula

Good morning,

nice & sunny here; washing on the line & visit to Tatco completed

Spent £40.04 in there & another £20 on petrol - although £10 of this was from DD1, payment for picking her & her bessfriend up from airport at 6 am :eek: this saturday. Sounds mean but I didnt offer until she offered some form of payment

The funds are doing ok & I really do need to declare them or it's too easy to dip in . . .

Gas & electricity £120
Car £ 30
Dentist/optician £ 15
Presents £ 90
DD clubs etc. £ 75
Holiday £ 70 cash to be paid into bank + £150 in the bank

The car fund is sadly depleted; which of course I shall be regretting within a few weeks & the service, mot & cambelt are due :mad:

That is where the 0% card will come in very handy & I think there may be a couple of rugs that find their way on to it too :shhh:

As to the whole debt busting venture; boring & tedious :rolleyes:. Have had to come up with another plan ( devotee of the Shoe Gal & sarahb school of 'New Plans' ) to stop total apathy setting in.

I'm paid weekly & pay my rent weekly by standing order, everything else is monthly ( apart from tv licence which is quarterly)including the credit card bills. I worked out my budget & then how much each direct debit would be each week & have been attempting to leave that amount in the bank each week & pay the set - by me :rolleyes:, amount to the CC each week. It's not working out :wall:

New plan is to pay whatever is left in the bank each week towards the CCs

So next week after rent & contents insurance is paid I should have £100 left towards CC1, the following week after paying mobile & lovefilm I'll pay £50, the week after that it's water rates, virgin & lensmail so I'll pay nothing, but the week after that I can pay £60 etc etc.

I know it sounds logical & I'm a donut for not doing it before but I've just been in the 'budgeting for everything' mindset since starting out as a DFW

In fact, I sussed out ages ago that the budgeting for everything would only work if I started out with a months worth of budget up front, I just kept trying to make it work & getting fed up when it didnt :doh:

Due to the week where I cant pay anything I will miss my "under £5,000 by July 1st" target so I may well 'borrow' £60 from the holiday fund just to make sure I achieve my goal.

I'm really not going to stress over debt busting until September. That was when I had my secondary lbm & my year ends/begins.

What I really need to focus on is shedding that stone. I lost about 6lb but now seem to have gained 4lb :mad:

I still feel quite unsettled & probably will until DD1 moves in to her new place ( same day as my 'under £5,000' target :cool:. I'm just desperate to get on with decluttering in preparation for the floorboard stripping & painting project.

Due to have a free pub lunch soon so best get myself organized & DD also mentioned a bike ride this evening . . .

bye for now

lula
xx

Lula-Hula

Hello,

I havent much to report really but just thought I should let it be know that my appearances may be a bit sporadic for the next couple of weeks.

The Tornado is due back tomorrow & I forsee many hours on facebook ...:rolleyes:

I've had day of pampering, decluttering & reorganizing. Very saisfying it's been too .

It's also been a NSD although I'm not so much focused on them as I am on only spending £50 a week, that includes the housekeeping.

I've been reading Buffys new diary & am totally wowed by her new determination to succeed while still enjoying life.

When I started this quest, my aim was to be debt free by the time DD goes to secondary school in september 2011 & that is still the plan & the date I'm working towards. It would be great to be DF by May that year but not if it means we cant have any fun until then. I've been assessing my strengths & weaknesses & I am happy to admit that while I enjoy growing food at the allotment, I am never going to be a fantastic cook & be able to whizz up a fab meal from scratch at a cost of 72p. Cooking is a chore & frankly I'd rather not.

I am enjoying the clothes challenge which I never thought I would, and as I'm not yet walking around in rags & still cant fit into most of my clothes :mad: I'll probably do that again next year. I'm getting the hang of saving for the funds & think I may open a savings account that I can pay them all into so there's no temptation at home :rolleyes:.

Have an early start tomorrow so better get to bed

bye for now

lula
xx

Lula-Hula

Back again for yet another riveting instalment :rotfl:

My head is all over the place at the moment so if this makes no sense please just ignore.

First thing is I've managed to pay a mahoosive :rolleyes: £40 off CC1 this week. This is due to me being a total donut, having restricted & intermittent pc access & generally being totally out of sync/routine & confused by having DD1 here.

I amended my rent standing order (another increase :mad:) or so I thought until I checked my account on monday only to discover that actually I'd just added another one so paid 2 lots :eek::mad: therefore only £40 available for debt repayment. In spite of this I should still be able to meet my "under £5,000 by July 1st" target

I've paid £20 of £2 coins into the bank in order to do this so now down to £16 of savings. I've also paid the £70 into the holiday account. All the funds have been topped up so this is this weeks declaration :

Car tax fund £ 10
Car fund £ 30
Gas & electricity £140
Presents £100
Dentist/optician £ 20
DDs clubs etc £ 50
Holiday £300

I've had to use some of DDs fund as follows :

Brownies weekend £ 20
Science week £ 2
Class photo £ 8.50
Cycling course £ 5

I did a quick Tatco shop this morning & emerged only £23.31 worse off & that includes a bottle of my fave wine, reduced to £4.49

Cant settle at home at the moment, DD1's shifts are very confusing - so I went to the garden centre & bought some plants to replace the dead & dried out ones . That was another £8.47. It could have been much worse, there's a huge gifts & homewares section & I very nearly came away with an entire range of gorgeous shabby chic shelves, blackboards, trays, canisters, candle holders etc .... that would look fab in my kitchen - over £100 worth :eek:. I'm really proud of myself as I had both the 0% card & my Barclaycard on me. It may be madness but I always keep them with me, it's a kind of temptation aversion therapy type thing :rolleyes: Just knowing that at any given moment I have over £5,000 of purchasing power at my fingertips makes me far more aware of both the financial & emotional value of stuff I think knowing that I can have it if I really want it makes me feel less of a need to have it.


I got an email from a dating site asking me to fill in an affinity test. I did it out of curiostiy but dont remember joining any sites . The whole dating / do I actually want a partner / where am I going with my life / what do I want ? question has been occupying my mind. I need a life plan, quick. I've been so busy & bogged down with events over the last 3 years & just been focusing on day to day existence. I now feel as though I'm emerging from the gloom & despair & need to use this cautious optimism to start all over again. I want changes far beyond just reorganizing & redecorating the home & garden. I need to improve my social life. I need to have more fun & adventure.

I also need to collect DD from school

lula
xx

Shoe_Gal

Hi Lula

I definately second the 'more fun and adventure' thing :j I am aiming for some of this in my life - life is not all about debt but living with debt, paying it off and having some fun along the way

Shoe Gal x

Lula-Hula

Whirling in to declare all my good deeds done

Two wash loads currently having their creases blown away on the line
Card for Dad posted
Floors all swept & hoovered, currently suffering from mopping apathy
My room tidied & now waiting to see whether large bag of clothes will be ebayed but suspect they're off to the charity shop :rolleyes:
Empty pots & hanging weed basket now replenished with green & alive (so far ...) plants
Bathroom cleaned
Hair restored to preferred colour


Still need to :

mop floors
clean kitchen
do another 2 loads of washing
take stuff to be recycled
cut the grass
do some work at the allotment
eradicate pile of paperwork
:rolleyes: however, that lot can be done throughout the weekend

Think doing that affinity test was a bit dangerous. I have had about 7 emails from the site saying that people are looking at my profile :eek: Of course I then had to check theirs out .... I haven written anything personal on mine, there are no photos & I dont want to pay £100 odd to join the site. Yet. I'm really vieiwng it as an experiment, but from past experience I know that if anyone leaves a message or photo my curiosity will get the better of me . Maybe if I hang it out for while the site will start offering discounts :rotfl:

Happy weekend to all :j

lula
xx

Shoe_Gal

Wow Lula, you've got loads done :T

Be brave and go for it with the dating site, if you dare

PS. wouldn't take my own advice on this one - far too much of a scaredy cat

Lula-Hula

Hello,

sloping in late, having fallen asleep on the sofa, discovered that DD fell asleep on her bed & all the lights are on

Havent achieved much today. Did a load of washing which dried outside. Met up with a friend & dog for a walk. DD made some cakes all by herself & also made pasta & sauce for supper

I now keep checking my inbox & any suggested compatibles have to be read through & either saved or deleted. It's rather time consuming & I'd rather not be doing this right now, the plan was to wait until september.

All this has been whirling around in my head & I now keep thinking about what to say on my profile ie what do I want

My interests are so varied & yet I dont do many of them due to being DFW.This means that all I can really say about what I do is that I spend a lot of time doing gardening type stuff, going for bike rides & reading, it makes me sound like a 70 year old:o. I need to say that I'm kinda busy clearing my debts for the next 2 years as well :rolleyes:

here goes then :

fabulous but slightly bonkers female with no money, property or prospects seeks male patient enough to wait until she's finished clearing her debts ( approx 2 years) & raising her daughter ( approx 8-10 years) at which point she will be happy to stay out dancing & drinking til dawn, live on remote beach for a year or two, travel the length & breadth of the country in our campervan ( with onboard bathroom) & then move to largeish house near the sea & have 3 holidays a year & a few minibreaks as well, visiting art galleries, museums, restaurants, theatres, castles, spectacular scenery, select sporting events etc. Must be taken out to lunch & dinner once & week & a couple of visits to the pub/bar would be enjoyed too.Needs occasional wardrobe & shoedrobe replensishing. I'm quite happy for this lifestyle to commence immediately if you're happy to pay :rotfl:

Hmmmmm :rolleyes:

sarahb123_3

Lula-Hula wrote: »

fabulous but slightly bonkers female with no money, property or prospects seeks male [STRIKE]patient enough to wait until she's finished clearing her debts ( approx 2 years) & raising her daughter [/STRIKE]who wants a family she will be happy to stay out dancing & drinking til dawn, live on remote beach for a year or two, travel the length & breadth of the country in our campervan ( with onboard bathroom) & then move to largeish house near the sea & have 3 holidays a year & a few minibreaks as well, visiting art galleries, museums, restaurants, theatres, castles, spectacular scenery, select sporting events etc. Must be taken out to lunch & dinner once & week & a couple of visits to the pub/bar would be enjoyed too.Needs occasional wardrobe & shoedrobe replensishing. I'm quite happy for this lifestyle to commence immediately if you're happy to pay :rotfl:

Hmmmmm :rolleyes:

Well there is my wish list right there. Perfectly put Lula:D *grabs pen to copy into list*

Hollyberry

Dancing and drinking until dawn... beach... sea... campervan... travelling... hols and breaks ...who is going to be able to resist that? Sounds like perfection to me, even with the restrained ward/shoedrobe a campervan would entail. (Mind you, we took a campervan to France & Spain one summer, and you would not believe quite how much it is possible to fit in until customs have you take the whole lot out for inspection on the quayside, when it seems to cover an area the size of a small football field.)

Submit that profile immediately/in September (as desired), and tell the men to form an orderly queue and present any toxic tattoos for inspection.

Horace

I love your profile - you should submit it and see what happens:D

You have been really busy and I too have been busy spending on my credit cards:eek: Its an expensive couple of months - next month its car insurance, this month its been car tax, car service and MOT, plus paying out for a series of adverts in the posh wedding magazine (they made me an offer I could not refuse:rolleyes:) and paying for FSB membership (so that I can get totally free banking, cheaper insurance etc).

I was so crazy the other day (felt really down, when I got home I found the reason why I was feeling so off but that is another story), I had just been told that I needed an eye op (roll on 16 July) so I went and bought the watch that I have been admiring for the last 6 months - I need never buy a watch again and need to make an allowance for servicing it (this needs to be done every 5 years) and to make allowance in my contents insurance for its increase in value every year by 10%. Now I am looking at another 0% balance transfer card so that I can pay for it without paying interest - methinks I should have taken up their offer of paying it over 12 months on 0% interest:rolleyes:

Had to visit Primarni to buy some new jimjams and a dressing gown as I realised that the stuff I have is a bit shabby and I don't want to be embarrassed in the hospital:rolleyes: - I came out with t-shirts too:rolleyes:

Onwards and upwards as they say...you will have to let me know how you get on with the dating site as I am now manless, R has cold feet and doesnt want me waiting for him (god, I have waited 27 years because he is my soulmate, I wish now that I had never met him, not ever in my whole life:rolleyes:) Serves me right I guess.